The reason I chose to write about this company McDonnell Douglas is because I felt that what they did was appalling and demonic. They dehumanized the passengers and only seen profit margins. One may say that McDonnell Douglas imps did not know the meaning of the word “solidarity”: Solidarity is a principle of Catholic Social Teaching. This principle means the firm and preserving determination to commit oneself to the common good. This principle incorporates other principles like Human Dignity, Community, Common Good, Stewardship, and Option for the Poor, that is what we are to demonstrate in our actions. This principle does not always come into play with many corporations; Furthermore when things like this come into play, one may say that a company is participating in unethical business practice. This is the reason why an American commercial aircraft industry company named McDonnell Douglas failed to reach their full potential in designing aircrafts. Their lack of ethical appropriate behavior has shown many that the expense of a change of a product is more important than losing lives over something that could have been prevented. There are three ways this situation could have been avoided but yet was not: First, finding an ethical way of putting the consumer long term goals first and increasing profitability (ex. maintaining a good company image). Secondly, look at the short term effect of being unethical, and receiving high profitability and long-term effect of being caught and having to file bankruptcy finally; McDonnell Douglas has an ethical responsibility for the lives of the people who use their product. McDonnell Douglas had a responsibility to the people to provide them a quick trouble free flight to and from their chosen...
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...food chain. And what if they had to file bankruptcy everyone does it. We live in a capitalistic society. And what is “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell” (Borman, Frank) and who really believes in hell, do you think the under handed, self-righteous, egotistical, serial killer, sinner McDonnell Douglas do? But, I don’t know, I’ll let you decide.
Bibliography
Frank Borman. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved August 4, 2011, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/frankborma110700.html
Potter Stewart. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved August 4, 2011, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/potterstew390058.html
Zalot, & Guevin. (2010). Business Ethics and the American Corporation .
Zalot, & Guevin. (2010). Catholic Social Teachings: An introduction .
I think this unfortunate circumstance has made organizations look close into the products and services they offer. No one wants to clean up a mess that could be easily avoided. Even if they do it as a marketing plan that was found out by the public, it would prove to bring about a negative view of the firm. Also, I think it also stresses how companies influence society and how important it is for them to be responsible.
The four important aspects when considering Corporate Social Responsibility. First there is the Legal aspect, then economical, followed by ethical and completed with the area of philanthropic. When I think of legal aspect of this case, there are many different factors to consider. First, the fact that Amtrak is now required by law to consider the cause of the derailment which will cost them money. Amtrak will need to compensate the families who lost their loved ones during this horrific event and deal with the lawsuits that are sure to happen.
Since the industrial revolution, the field of engineering has allowed society to flourish through the development of technological advances at an exponential rate. Similar to other professionals, engineers are tasked with making ethical decisions, especially during the production and distribution processes of new inventions. One field that has encountered ethical dilemmas since its inception is the automotive industry. Today, the dawn of the autonomous, self-driving, vehicle is upon us. In this new-age mode of transportation, humans will be less responsible for decisions made on the road. With the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles, there exist a possibility to reduce traffic-related accidents. Even though computers have the ability
As one of the world’s largest airline, United Airlines employs over 80,000 people and transports over 143 million people a year ("United Airlines newsroom," 2017). These staggering numbers equate to billions of interactions between the public and United Airlines employees and subsidiaries. It is understandable that a company with such a large public audience and employee base would have a code of ethics statement to help its employees so that they can make decisions that are in line with company expectations.
The author felt that Boeing is plagued by bad company norms. Previous CEOs were people with low ethical sensitivity who had not been leading by example. Stonecipher committed an ethical lapse by having a relationship with an employee while Philip and Stonecipher travelled in luxurious business jet with personal handlers. Subconsciously, they were conveying a message across the company: Boeing tolerates ethical lapse; power and privileges are entitlements for higher ranking staff. McNerney agrees that bureaucracy has given higher ranking staff too much autonomy such that breaching ethical codes can be overlooked since little or none in the company can penalize them.
The quality, the happiness, the good thing that you can give the consumer is the end, your sense of duty to do these things is the means. Looking at things from this perspective, Fords actions were unethical. The Kantian idea causes me believe that Ford should have put the potentially life-saving part into the Pinto, not because they have a moral obligation to produce safe vehicles, or because they want praise for looking out for the safety and well-being of their consumers, but because it’s the right thing to do. Clearly, Ford didn’t do that. Based on the case study and the information presented, they allowed financial data and projections to dictate the decision, whether morally right or
Hughes Microelectronics is a company that were found to have unethical practices during the 1980’s when handling government contracts. This was brought to light by two whistleblowers that worked for the company at the time. The purpose of this is to review four main questions concerning the situation and how it was handled ethically by the whistleblower. The first and second parts will be fairly similar what were the responsibilities of the company itself, what were the responsibilities of the main whistleblower Margaret Goodearl. Next, the conflict between the two parties will be examined and also whether or not the situation was handled ethically. Lastly the question of whether or not whistleblowing is the most ethical solution
The aerospace industry is fairly new in our day in age. It has been recorded in history that the first flight ever by man took place in Kitty Hawk, NC roughly 100 years ago. Since that first model, drastic improvements have been made in aerospace technology. Aerospace has evolved from simple prop planes to sound barrier breaking jets and even to space shuttles. The very definition of aerospace in the adjective or active form is “of or relating to aerospace, to vehicles used in aerospace or the manufacture of such vehicles, or to travel in aerospace.” In general, aerospace deals with any dynamic manufactured vehicle that travels above the surface of the earth. This, as you might expect, leaves two possibilities, the atmosphere or our earth, and outer space. Such basic examples of aerospace vehicles are Cessna planes, Black Hawk helicopters, Goodyear blimps and the Columbia Space Shuttle. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, aerospace has and will continue to be an integrated part of our society.
Do you agree with Schmeltekopf that business schools are not preparing students well for the for the ethical challenges they will face in the workplace? Why or why not?
It seems that recently every airline has had some type of scandal. There was the United Airlines scandal where a doctor was assaulted and dragged off of a plane for refusing to give up his seat. Then there was the family that was kicked off a Delta flight for refusing to give up the seat they had purchased for their eldest child, who had flown home earlier that day.
Explain the connection between the economic model of corporate social responsibility and “free market” or “neoclassical” economic theory.
Apple is a company facing a lot of ethical dilemmas. Since it is such a large and rapidly growing company, they face a lot of scrutiny from the media. Apple also faces a lot of pressure to be competitive in the technology market. As a result of this, companies tend to cut costs in as many ways as possible, some of which aren’t always ethical. One of the most typical ways businesses cut costs is by lowering production costs, which entails outsourcing for cheap labor. However, in order for labor to be made cheaper many sacrifices have to be made, which tend to be forced upon the workers by lowering wages, making working conditions unfavorable, and often by employing child labor.
Toyota issues in automotive industry resulted from a lack of moral and ethical obligations to loyal customers. In fact, people encounter ethics at one time or another. A business expectation is to act in manner upholding society values. According to authors Trevino and Nelson, (2004) states, “a set of moral principals or values, or the principals, norm, and standards of conduct governing a group or individual.” On the other hand, three ethical criteria determined in this discussion like obligation, moral ideas, and consequences which this article highlights an ethical dilemma with automobiles makers.
It seems obvious that large corporations have a tendency to ignore the negative effects of their actions in favor of profit. This example, although sensationalized, still says to me that with power comes responsibility. It affirmed my belief that a corporation’s goal cannot be just to provide profit to shareholders, but there must also be an element of social responsibility.
The Facts: Kermit Vandivier works for B.F. Goodrich. His job assignment was to write the qualifying report on the four disk brakes for LTV Aerospace Corporation. LTV purchased aircraft brakes from B.F. Goodrich for the Air Force. Goodrich desperately wanted the contract because it guaranteed a commitment from the Air Force on future brake purchases for the A7D from them, even if they lost money on the initial contract.